• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

vacation becomes sick leave

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

H

hrnewbie

Guest
From Nebraska! ( :mad: Go Big Red :mad: )

Our firm has never had a written sick leave policy, but as we've grown, it's becoming apparent that we should.

Vacation time is available only during the year it is granted. If unused at the end of the year, it goes away. (It would only add insult to injury if an employee were to quit AND ask for 6 weeks vacation pay to boot.) We'd like to structure our leave policy so that unused vacation time would accumulate as emergency leave time. That way, employees anticipating scheduled family leave might be able to build a reserve of paid time off, but we wouldn't have to pay them unused vacation should they depart.

Each year, all employeees would be granted 2 weeks vacation, 2 weeks sick leave. At the end of the year, any unused vacation would roll over into an emergency leave pool, though "unused" sick time would go away.

Are there any legal concerns in doing this? We haven't found any so far...

I'd appreciate any comments - legal or otherwise.
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
There is nothing illegal in your premise. However, you want to be very, VERY careful to spell out exactly what will happen to the unused time and/or emergency leave on termination. Nebraska law requires the payout of fringe benefits at termination if there is an agreement between the employer and the employee that the unused time will be considered as wages, and the employee has met the agreement. For purposes of the legal definition, this can include both vacation AND sick pay.

I don't see any bar to your doing what you plan, but PLEASE make sure your corporate attorney reviews the policy before you submit it to your employees, or you may end up having to pay it out at termination regardless.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top